Memoir has become one of the most popular forms of personal writing. But there are traps for the unwary — memoir is often mistaken for autobiography and even for fiction. It is also mistaken for writing 'the truth'. The word 'memoir' comes from 'memory', after all — and we don't make up our memories, do we? Or do we? Writers Gillian Wills (Elvis Was Here) and Kristina Olsson (Boy,Lost) unpack the joys, the difficulties and surprises of writing memoir. Includes the launch of Kristina Olsson’s Second Memoir.

Following Kristina’s award winning book Boy, Lost she will shortly release a second memoir published by Scribner (Simon & Schuster) and discuss it exclusively at the festival. This is also about a lost boy who was left behind in Sweden when her father fled the country just after the Second World War. Kristina will share her journey at a critical point of near completion – is writing a book ever over? Kristina Olsson is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and journalism. Her 2009 novel The China Garden won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Kibble Prize. Her 2013 memoir, Boy, Lost, garnered multiple awards including the Queensland, New South Wales and West Australian Premiers awards for non-fiction and the Kibble Prize. Her most recent novel, Shell, launched the legendary Scribner Australia literary imprint and was shortlisted in several major literary awards. She is currently working on a memoir set in Sweden and northern Norway that tracks the life of another lost child.

Gillian Wills was Dean of Music at the Victorian College of Arts. She is a classical pianist and an honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music for distinguished services to the music profession. Gillian's debut novel Big Music was featured as a notable book in last December's Weekend Review. Currently, she writes for Queensland's InDaily Queensland, Limelight and Australian Book Review. Her memoir Elvis and Me: how a world-weary musician and a broken racehorse rescued each other has been released in 2016 in Australia, NZ, Canada, America and The UK.

Discover more about the Eumundi Writers Festival here: https://eumundiwritersfestival.com.au/